Popocatepetl

Mexico

19.023°N, 98.622°W; summit elev. 5393 m

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)

CENAPRED reported that a small eruption at Popocatépetl on 10 June at 1744 produced a W-drifting ash column to a height of ~3 km above the volcano. In addition, episodes of low-amplitude harmonic tremor were recorded for a total of 2 hours. According to the Washington VAAC, the volcano returned to just gas venting after the eruption. Based on information from the México City MWO, the Washington VAAC also reported that a small emission occurred on 15 June at 1401. Aviators reported that the cloud from this eruption rose to ~2 km above the volcano and drifted N.

Geologic Background. Volcán Popocatépetl, whose name is the Aztec word for smoking mountain, rises 70 km SE of Mexico City to form North America's 2nd-highest volcano. The glacier-clad stratovolcano contains a steep-walled, 400 x 600 m wide crater. The generally symmetrical volcano is modified by the sharp-peaked Ventorrillo on the NW, a remnant of an earlier volcano. At least three previous major cones were destroyed by gravitational failure during the Pleistocene, producing massive debris-avalanche deposits covering broad areas to the south. The modern volcano was constructed south of the late-Pleistocene to Holocene El Fraile cone. Three major Plinian eruptions, the most recent of which took place about 800 CE, have occurred since the mid-Holocene, accompanied by pyroclastic flows and voluminous lahars that swept basins below the volcano. Frequent historical eruptions, first recorded in Aztec codices, have occurred since Pre-Columbian time.